L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat (1896)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Directors:

Auguste Lumière
Louis Lumière

Release Date:

1897 (Turkey)

Genre:

Short | Documentary

Plot:

Another of the Lumiere Brothers' one-shot films, this time showing a steam train arriving at a station...

Plot Keywords:

Train | Railway Station

Also Known As:

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (USA)
L'arrivée du train en gare de La Ciotat (France)
The Arrival of the Mail Train

Runtime:

1 min

Country:

France

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.31 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

La Ciotat, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Company:

Lumière

Trivia:

Film historians agree that the first public exhibition of motion pictures occurred on 28th December 1895 when Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière (the Lumière Brothers) exhibited a selection of ten of their single-reel films to a paying audience at a Parisian café. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Historia del cine: Epoca muda (1983) (V)

Genesis

I have little to add to other reviewers, except to say that this film took a sudden importance in my life last year. In 2002 I was travelling by train to my first ever Cannes Film Festival. At one point the train was moving slowly and I looked out of the window and found that we were pulling through La Ciotat, and the platform hadn't changed a bit. Sadly the train didn't stop, otherwise I would have been tempted to jump off for a moment, but given the purpose of my journey I felt a strange thrill at being there. Just a little personal anecdote, but perhaps it shows something of the power and importance of those early steps in film.